Considering the money to be made on social media, some want better laws protecting child influencers
For a time, Ruby Franke was famous and reportedly earned more than $100,000 a month for her popular 8 Passengers YouTube channel, which documented family life with her husband and six children. The children were extensively featured as Franke gave parenting advice to 2 million subscribers.
But in 2023, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. She confessed to physically torturing her children, forcing them to work outdoors in the heat without enough water, calling them evil, withholding food and denying them access to books and electronics.
The case provided observers with a peek into the darker side of the influencer world when it comes to minors.
Children working as social media influencers, dubbed “kidfluencers,” can have millions of followers tracking them, their activities and the products they endorse. Top creators like Ryan Kaji, who with the help of his parents built a media empire through his YouTube channel, can make millions of dollars before they reach adulthood.
But what happens if the parents or guardians are spending or mismanaging their children’s earnings? What happens if the children are overworked and mistreated?
Leah A. Plunkett, the Meyer Research Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, has written extensively about the intersection of children, the digital world and the law.
She says it’s long past time for state and federal legislators to address the legal issues pertaining to children whose daily lives or activities are used to generate commercial value on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube or Instagram.
“We are increasingly seeing children and teenagers entertaining us on social media, trying to sell us things and give us life advice,” Plunkett says. “States are starting to ask questions about what rights to give these child performers and, correspondingly, examine the responsibilities that should be placed on parents or guardians.”
States like California are requiring that parents or guardians of children featured in monetized online content set aside a portion of the children’s income in a trust, saving some of the money for when they reach adulthood.
In addition, some states are passing or considering laws to address concerns that children are being exploited because, in general, content creation isn’t covered by state or federal child labor laws, Plunkett says. “There’s a whole new type of entertainment that has mostly managed, until now, to fall into this unregulated space.”
Coogan Law
Child entertainers performing in standard media productions, like films, have protection in states like Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico and New York which all mandate that a portion of their earnings, generally 15%, is set aside in a blocked trust that parents can’t access. Children can receive the money once they reach adulthood.
In 1939, California enacted the first of these laws, the California Child Actor’s Bill, which is often called the Coogan Law. It was inspired by the case of child actor Jackie Coogan, who discovered in adulthood that his mother and stepfather had squandered almost all his earnings. Coogan, who played the title role in Charlie Chaplin’s film The Kid, ultimately received only $126,000 of his estimated $4 million fortune.
Mandatory blocked trusts provide guardrails for children so that they can preserve some of their income, says Joshua A. Edwards, a Los Angeles-based partner at Fox Rothschild specializing in entertainment law.
In 2023, Illinois became the first state to extend financial protection to child ifluencers under age 16, imposing requirements that parents or guardians who feature children in online content put aside a portion of the minor’s earnings, depending on the type of content and how much the child is featured in the monetized online content.
A year later, California revised its law to ensure minors engaged in digital content creation are protected. Several other states, including Arkansas, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia, have adopted blocked trust requirements for child influencers. But even when these laws are passed, they generally put the impetus on setting up the accounts on the parents, not the brands they are promoting or other outside entities, Edwards says. Traditional child entertainers have their money set aside by outside employers, such as production companies.
In addition, while child influencers can become members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, they are often not aware they have that option or choose not to pursue it, given that they are often managed by their parents or guardians. If they aren’t represented by a union, “who’s going to enforce the laws against parents or custodians?” Edwards asks.
Working conditions
Plunkett says she’s concerned about the toxicity of the child influencer culture—children and teens being put to work from the home, exposed online and sometimes sexualized.
There’s a “very dark side to the kid and teen family influencer industry,” she says. “Even against the backdrop of these big-picture concerns, it’s certainly possible for families to take an ethical and respectful approach, but that is not the norm for this sector at this point in time.”
As the child influencer business has exploded, it’s been unclear whether these minors have child labor protections, such as mandated breaks or limited hours, Plunkett says. And concern is rising about the children’s working conditions.
The problem, she says, is that regulating the labor of child influencers may be seen as overreaching by extending to a “family home.”
In 2025, Minnesota, in addition to establishing mandatory blocked trusts, passed an age-based labor restriction prohibiting minors under age 14 from “engaging in the work of content creation” as employment. The law also says children over 13 and adults can request that content creators delete their featured images and can file civil actions for violations.
Tyler Chou is a Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer who represents social media influencers. She argues that increased access to SAG would provide union protections and health insurance mirroring the safety net of traditional entertainers. Chou also says child influencers and their parents or guardians don’t necessarily know how to save money or run a successful business or consider whether relevant child labor laws and requirements apply to them.
According to her, both the children and the adult need education on how to build a sustainable business with diversified revenue streams, although she admits it would be hard to mandate.
“Most parents are not like the evil parents we think about from stories who want to take advantage of their kids. I think most parents want to do what’s best for their kids, but they are financially illiterate,” Chou says. “They’re not thinking that they should start a college fund or a 401K or a savings account.”
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